Brony Census Tracks ‘State of the Herd’

A study compiled by a man calling himself Coder Brony collected piles of information on the brony “herd.”Screengrab: Wired.com

Ever since the “brony” phenomenon grabbed the public’s attention, there have been many questions about who the bronies are, where they come from and what they do when they’re not watching My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic.

Now, thanks to the “Brony Herd Census,” an 89-page report conducted by one a self-proclaimed brony, we’ve got some answers. The census’ creator, who goes by “Coder Brony,” compiled the data by setting up a 10-question panel on Survey Monkey, then soliciting bronies to respond on fan sites like Equestria Daily. He ended up with about 9,000 responders and analyzed their responses himself. (Considering the above details, please take the results with the requisite grain of salt.)

“I created it because I was curious about what type of ponies made up the Brony herd, and how they differed from the SF/fantasy fandom I grew up with,” Coder Brony, who asked to be identified as a “40-something male software engineer and writer living in New England,” said in an e-mail to Wired.com. “They definitely have a much more loving and supportive attitude than the average fans I’ve encountered.”

Although internet surveys are far from scientific, Coder Brony’s DIY census takes a surprisingly deep dive into the brony phenomenon, providing details about the individuals who make up one of the more unusual groups to find a home on the internet.

Some of the results are to be expected — 85.71 percent of the respondents were male, the bulk (89 percent) were between the ages of 15 and 29, and 96.74 percent have never been married (not surprising, considering the age demographic).

“The big caveat here is that you have to kind of look at this by saying that only certain types of fans are going to fill out fan surveys,” Ben Huh, the CEO of I Can Has Cheezburger?, told Wired.com. “To call this a census is probably a bad idea; this is a self-selected survey of My Little Pony fans.”

But some of the data is compelling. Take, for example, the fact that 79 percent of bronies said they have gone public with their love of My Little Pony. Huh points out that while the large proportion of “public” bronies isn’t that astonishing, the fact that they feel the need to go public is.

“If I read a survey that said that said 79 percent of all gay people came out of the closet, that would be an amazing news story, whereas 79 percent of people claiming that they in one way or another talk about a show that they normally wouldn’t [discuss] isn’t all that fascinating,” Huh said. “What is fascinating is that this is a thing — this ‘coming out as a brony’ thing is a meme within the subculture.”

Some results impressed even the census’ creator, like the fact that teen fans like the character Fluttershy, not Rainbow Dash. And Twilight Sparkle became a favorite as fans aged. He also was happy to see respondents’ educational levels. Even though bronies tend to be young, many had advanced degrees: 58 reported they had Ph.D.s and 247 had graduate degrees — not bad considering nine out of 10 respondents were under 30.

“It’s hard to tell what the downstream rates are, because most respondents are in the age group still in college (more than 40 percent responded they had attended at least some college, I suspect but can’t prove that most are still pursuing their degree),” Coder Brony said. “As I continue to track the population longitudinally, we can see if they do indeed get degrees (and if they continue to remain fans as they age).”

Highlights of the report are available on the Herd Census website. Or you can download the entire 2012 “State of the Herd Report” (.pdf). It’s packed with almost 90 pages of brony data, so grab a cup of Equestria tea (not a real thing) and dig in.